5 comments:

Wonderfull. Sadly, I think most kids today would be painfully disappointed with this the original Disney park. I love Space Mountain and The Tower of Terror as much as the kids, but there's something about your photos that makes me a bit sad that we can't enjoy simple thrills like this anymore.

Love the site. Please check out my site (retrospace) when you get a chance.

Were these photos an antique store find Todd? Very cool... early Disneyland looks more like a parking lot school picnic here, it's amazing how much it's developed over the years, sometimes for the better, sometimes not.

Gilligan - Simple thrills still thrill me, but you're right kids today are different. I just quickly checked out your blog and its retro-cool! When I find time I'll be sure to look thru your older posts.

Karswell - I can't remember if I found them in an antique shop or ebay. I think the park has changed for the worst in the past few years.

Wow. My family and I have been going to Disneyland regularly since October of last year, since we bought the annual SoCal passes. My kid's gonna be 4 this year, and he loves Disneyland (the whole reason why we got the passes).

It was a total privelege for me to go to Disneyland when I was a kid; I was lucky if I went more than twice a year, and that was only if relatives flew in from out of town. Now that we go almost every week, I've really gotten to know the place and learn something new about it every time. Totally crazy though, how when you're grown up the place seems so much smaller. When I was a kid it was like a universe. I'm sure my kid feels that way now.

Your picture of the old tram just reminded me of how Disneyland (finally) implemented these "safety doors" onto the trams pretty recently. The handles lock the doors into place during transit, keeping all the passengers locked up within. I wonder what it took for them to finally say, "Ok, that's it...we need safety doors." Perhaps they met their quota of people who fell out or personal belongings falling off. Either way, yet another milestone that makes me wish it was still like it was in the '70s.